Singer, songwriter, producer and the voice of South Park’s Chef until Scientology came between. The voice of hot, buttered soul is still.
Water Wars
This was the river — what was left of it, after the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power drained it dry in 1913, sending its water to the San Fernando Valley in what many considered a monumental water grab that destroyed life as Inyo County knew it — the genesis of the movie “Chinatown.”
My KNX documentary, “Water Wars: The Battle for Owens Valley” tells the whole story and the 2006 video above fills in the pictures.
 Playback: Water Wars: The Battle for Owens Valley |
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| Click the arrow to play, right-click the icon to download 2007 Edward R. Murrow Award, News Documentary |
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Everything changed December 6, 2006 when L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa turned a valve sending water (and, he hoped, goodwill) flowing through down the ancient riverbed.
Not that he had much choice. After years of legal wrangling, Superior COurt Judge Lee Cooper ruled Los Angeles must put the river back, or lose one of two Owens aqueducts vital to L.A’s water supply — in addition to $5,000 a day in fines until the Lower Owens ran once more. The result? The photos you see here.
I was going over my notes, remembering what Villaraigosa told Owens Valley residents last December.
“By opening these gates today, we will demonstrate to the world that the great City of Los Angeles is prepared to own up to its history,” said the Mayor, “and that we can thrive in partnership and in balance with our neighbors and with the environment of the Eastern Sierra.”
Are Owens residents convinced? Years of recriminations washed away? Watch this space.
Today, flows on the Lower O are averaging 40 feet per second says birder and Sierra Club member Mike Prather of Lone Pine. He’s also a member of the E. Sierra Kayak Club which has been trying out the “new” river.
Prather says cattails and tules are the first beneficiaries of the water, choking the new stream in places as the river figures out where, exactly, it’s going to flow.
Are fish navigating the river? Yeah. Some trout have been caught. But will years of stored up nutrients in the riverbed oversaturate river with oxygen and kill off anything living in these waters when the DWP flushes the Lower O to mimic seasonal runoffs from the Sierras? And, is restoration responsible for the skies above the valley being filled with more ducks and geese that have been seen in years?
To be continued…
